Political-Military Integration: The Relationship Between National Security Strategy and Changes in Military Doctrine in the United States Army and Marine Corps

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the interaction of changes in national security strategy with changes in individual military services’ operational concepts and doctrine. It expands on existing analyses of changes in American grand strategy by focusing specifically on the responses of the United States military services to those changes. While a robust body of work exists on strategy and military innovation, much less research exists on the relationship between the two. The dissertation’s theoretical framework explains how changes in grand strategy affect changes in military service behavior, how and why military services push back against changes in grand strategy, and how military services may independently influence changes in grand strategy by developing new warfighting and power projection capabilities. This dissertation draws on theory-based historical analysis to execute comparative case study research designs using archival sources—many of them recently declassified and being used in academic research for the first time. It relies on organizational theory, bureaucratic politics, civil-military relations, and international security studies to develop a set of hypotheses regarding when and why we should expect to see particular reactions from a given military service to a change in security strategy. These responses range from inaction or insubordination to pursuing radical change meant to integrate the service with new strategic objectives. Crucially, these outcomes also vary depending on the type of grand strategy pursued and how civilian officials implement that strategy. The empirical analysis includes seven case studies ranging from the Army and Marine Corps responses to the New Look strategy enacted in 1953 to the Army and Marine Corps efforts to shape American strategy in the 1980s with their respective AirLand Battle and Maneuver Warfare concepts.